Pronounce the following last name: Daigle.

Did you say “day-gull”? “Die-gelle”? “Day-glee”? Don’t worry — Namecoach can help you.

This startup is targeting the $100 billion market for voice-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI), and within it, the eleven-billion-dollar market for name pronunciation.

It’s an AI-powered platform that delivers accurate audio-name pronunciations. This ensures names are pronounced correctly with ease every time, and sets a new standard for AI-enhanced communication.

Namecoach is backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund — Thiel was an early investor in Facebook — StartX, Impact America Fund, 640 Oxford, Authentic Ventures, and other venture-capital firms. These VCs also invested in Spotify, OpenAI, Facebook, and Airbnb.

The company has four million users and is generating four million dollars in annual-recurring revenue (ARR), all while achieving ninety-percent profit margins.

Its award-winning platform is used by more than 400 customers, including LucasFilm, the WNBA, Proctor & Gamble, and The American Medical Association.

Team Background

Praveen Shanbhag - Founder & CEO

Prior to starting Namecoach, Praveen was a lecturer at Stanford University. Before that, he was a science and technology graduate fellow at the National Academy of Sciences.

Early in his career, he was a senior analyst with Advisory Board, a Washington D.C.-based research-services company. Before that, he was a research analyst with the White House’s Office of Science and Technology.

Praveen holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science from Harvard, a Master’s degree in Physics from Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stanford.

John Merrells - Engineering and Product Advisor

John is an award-winning startup veteran who’s been affiliated with sixteen exits worth more than eight billion dollars.

In addition to his role with Namecoach, he is Chief Technology Officer with kea, a software-development company. He is also a mentor and advisor with StartX, a prominent startup accelerator.

Earlier in his career, he co-founded Parthenon, a startup accelerator for software companies. Before that, he was a software engineer with Netscape and Octel Communications.

John earned a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire.

Fabricio Bellesa - Head of Engineering

Fabricio has notable domain experience with respect to engineering.

Prior to Namecoach, he scaled PicPay, a financial-technology company, from 30 engineers to 1,000 as it became Brazil’s largest digital-wallet service.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree at the Instituto Federal do Espírito Santo in Brazil.